Pyongyang 'Mata Hari' faces death sentence after seducing hundreds of secrets from South Korean army officer

Thursday 28 August 2008 10:53 BST

A North Korean spy 'used sex as a tool' to extract secrets from an army officer she met after 'defecting' to the South, it has been revealed.

Won Jeong-hwa passed classified information on the locations of key military installations, lists of North Korean defectors and personal information on South Korean military officers.

The 34-year-old even plotted to assassinate South Korean intelligence agents with poisoned needles provided by her handlers.

She dated a South Korean army officer, named only as Hwang, who has also been arrested, officials said.

Caught out: Won Jeong-hwa used sex as a tool to get secrets

Caught out: Won Jeong-hwa used sex as a tool to get secrets

Executed: Mata Hari

Executed: Mata Hari

The case is being compared the Mata Hari, the Dutch exotic dancer executed as a German spy during the World War One.

She is the first alleged North Korean spy arrested in South Korea since 2006, and the second in a decade, the statement said.

Won entered the South in 2001 after marrying a South Korean businessman in China, falsely reporting to authorities that she was a defector from the North, prosecutors said.

She and her husband immediately divorced and she started dating the 26-year-old army captain.

Prosecutors said Won often traveled to China to visit an office of the North's spy agency. There she received instructions and money totalling £30,000 for her mission.

Before entering South Korea, Won worked as a North Korean intelligence agent in China and played a role in arresting and sending about 100 defectors back to the impoverished nation, prosecutors said.

'There have been concerns that there might be spies among defectors as the number of defectors has risen,' a statement from the prosecutors said. 'This is the first case where these concerns were confirmed.'

No trial date has been set for Won, who is in custody. If convicted, she faces anywhere from seven years in prison to execution.

In recent years, thousands of North Koreans facing hunger and repression at home have defected to South Korea via China or Southeast Asian nations.

More than 13,500 North Koreans have arrived in the South since the Korean War, most of them since the early 2000s.

The two Koreas fought the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, which means the peninsula still remains technically at war.

Their relations had warmed significantly after the first-ever summit of their leaders in 2000, but chilled again this year after conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February with a pledge to get tough on the North.

Today South Korea's defence chief warned military officers to beware of North Korean spies.

Defence Minister Lee Sang-hee called the case 'very regrettable' and 'unacceptable' and told top aides to take steps to help officers and soldiers increase their awareness of North Korean operatives.

"This case means North Korea remains unchanged and is trying to strengthen its efforts for revolution deep in the South," Lee told a meeting of top officers called to discuss the case.

"We have to clearly understand that any military officer can become their target."